Toric-drive Continuously Variable Transmissions (hereinafter generically referred to as “CVT”) are believed known in the art. The operation of such a CVT will therefore only be briefly discussed herein.
Generally stated, a CVT is provided with a drive disk having a toroidal surface, a driven disk also having a toroidal surface and facing the toroidal surface of the drive disk, both disks being linked by rollers in contact with their respective toroidal surfaces. The tilt angle of the rollers with respect to the drive and driven disks dictates the speed ratio between the driven and drive disks since this angle dictates the radial position at which the rollers contact the two toroidal surfaces.
These rollers are generally linked to one another so that their tilt angle is the same. A roller position control mechanism is therefore required to insure that the rollers present the same tilt angle and move simultaneously when they change from one ratio to another.